ARTICLES ABOUT INCOME BY DATE - PAGE 2

By Julien Toyer and Lisa Jucca MADRID/MILAN (Reuters) - When Angel Gomez and Maria Luisa Fernandez retired a decade ago, they imagined spending their pensions largely on restaurant meals, holidays and toys for the grandkids. Today, their retirement money helps to support five families. The Spanish couple, like other relatively prosperous pensioners across southern Europe, are providing an informal safety net which has helped many in the younger generation to avoid widespread poverty despite record-high unemployment.

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - New Jersey, which revealed a massive budget shortfall this week, is far from alone in feeling the pinch of lower income tax revenues in the key month of April, a Reuters analysis shows. Personal income tax collections plunged last month from a year earlier in 27 of 32 states for which Reuters was able to collect data. That's most of the 43 states that levy income taxes, and drops were as high as 50 percent. While many states predicted tough times this year, a handful including New Jersey and Pennsylvania is set to face hard decisions on either cutting spending or raising taxes.

House lawmakers don't want to pass legislation to make a state income tax increase permanent, they don't want to pass a budget with major cuts, and now they've got to figure out what they're going to do about a spending plan with only a week left in the spring session. Illinois is in this legislative pickle because of a decision made in January 2011. Democrats pushed through a law to raise the state income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent and tucked in a provision to let the tax rate fall back to 3.75 percent in January 2015.

Tribune Co. said Tuesday that its net income declined by 30 percent in the first quarter, as gains in broadcast revenue were offset by double-digit publishing declines and higher expenses. Net income was $41.1 million, or 41 cents per share, compared with $58.4 million, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier. Tribune Co. had an operating profit of $74 million, an 11 percent decline. Consolidated revenue for the first quarter was $852 million, up 21 percent from the same quarter a year earlier.

"To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. " - The late broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow . In the coming days, the Illinois General Assembly will likely vote on whether to make permanent the so-called temporary income tax increase. At issue is whether Illinois lawmakers will choose honesty over political expediency. It is time for honesty to win a battle in Illinois. When the income tax increase was proposed and passed in 2011, it came with the explicit promise that the rates would begin to roll back in 2015.

SPRINGFIELD - Gov. Pat Quinn spent more than two hours Monday trying to convince House Democrats to vote to make permanent what was billed as a temporary income tax increase, but Speaker Michael Madigan said support remains “significantly” short. The tense, closed-door meeting sets up the political dynamic for the final two weeks of the spring session: Democrats try to collect 60 votes in the House before the May 31 adjournment to keep the state's income tax rate at 5 percent, attempt to come up with an alternative, or go home and wait until after the Nov. 4 election to deal with the state's finances.

Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner sought to exert influence in the debate on whether to make permanent a state income tax increase by commissioning automated calls targeting seven Democratic lawmakers. In the calls, Rauner encourages listeners to “help me fight Pat Quinn's tax increase” by telling the legislators “to protect you from higher income taxes.” The move came a day after the Democratic governor met with House Democrats in a closed-door meeting to lobby them to extend the 2011 income tax hike, portions of which are scheduled to drop off in January.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan on Friday invited India's incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit, just hours after India's opposition candidate secured a crushing victory in the world's largest election. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to power last year promising to improve relations with nuclear arch-rival India, but a series of clashes on the disputed Kashmir border has cast doubt over the peace process. "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke to Narendra Modi on the phone this afternoon and congratulated him on this remarkable election victory and invited him to visit Pakistan," Sartaj Aziz, Sharif's adviser on national security and foreign affairs, told Reuters.

Message for every voter in Illinois: Contact your representative (Senate and House) and tell them you will not support their re-election if they vote to extend the "temporary" income tax increase. And let's not forget House Speaker Michael Madigan, who insisted the tax hike would be temporary. Looks like another lie. When will his nose start getting longer? - Robert A. Bell, Niles

SPRINGFIELD - House Speaker Michael Madigan advanced a proposed overhaul of one of the state's special tax incentive programs Wednesday with an eye toward helping areas of high unemployment and poverty. But Doug Whitley, president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, contended the proposed changes are too complicated to work, although he said the state needs to focus on employment. “I can't think of a more complicated way to engage in economic development,” he said, saying he was “beside myself” when he reviewed the bill.